Mine roller

During the interwar period, the British were the first to work on mine clearing devices.{{sfn|Bishop|2014|page=61}} After being removed from the Dover Patrol and joining the newly created Tank Board, Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon designed the Invicta Roller, which was a pair of steamrollers rigged in front of a Mark V tank.{{cite web |last1=Fletcher |first1=David |title=Experimental WWI Tanks - Part II |url=https://tankmuseum.org/article/experimental-tanks-part-two |website=The Tank Museum |access-date=24 April 2025 |date=19 May 2017}} It was a cumbersome design and the rollers had to be re-rigged every time a mine detonated beneath them, making the clearing process slower and more complicated than "crawling along the ground with a bayonet".{{sfn|Hogg|1996|pages=246−247}}

In 1937, the concept was revived with sprung rollers mounted in front of a Covenanter tank. When the rollers detonated a mine, the explosion simply pushed the rollers up against the spring and then rebounded back to the ground, allowing the tank to continue mine clearing without interruptions. This design would become the AMRA (Anti-Mine Roller Attachment),{{sfn|Hogg|1996|page=247}} which would be used in their Matilda II, Valentine, and Crusader tanks in the North African campaign during World War II. The rollers only covered the width of each track rather than clearing a tank-width path for subsequent vehicles and troops. To these were added a Churchill tank with the evocatively named Canadian Indestructible Roller Device (CIRD). The British used mine rollers to detect the presence of minefields and then used mine flails for the clearance.Fletcher The Universal Tank HMSO

After great difficulties caused by minefields in the Winter War against Finland, the Soviet Red Army assigned P. M. Mugalev at the Dormashina Factory in Nikolayev to design a mine-clearing vehicle. Prototypes were tested based on the T-28 medium tank in 1940. Development was interrupted by the start of World War II, but resumed in 1942. T-60 and KV tank chassis underwent trials, but only the T-34 was deemed to have a sufficiently robust transmission and clutch.

Experimental detachments of PT-34 mine roller tanks were formed in May 1942, and saw action at Voronezh in August. The first Independent Engineer Tank Regiment with eighteen mine rollers was fielded in October 1943. At least five regiments were formed during the war.

The PT-34's huge roller fork was semi-permanently mounted on a T-34 or T-34-85 tank. The rollers were usually removed for travel, and only installed for mine clearing operations. Adaptations for later tanks consisted of two lighter arms. The Mugalev system was adopted by U.S. and Israeli forces in the 1980s.

The Germans worked on several designs mounted on different tanks, but none ever entered service before the end of WWII. As early as of 1939, they worked on a radio-controlled miniature tank with a set of toothed rollers mounted behind it. While prototypes were tested, development took a different turn and it ended up becoming the Goliath tracked mine. Another German prototype was the Räumer S: a 130 tonne articulated vehicle with two pairs of {{cvt|2.7|m}} diameter roller wheels, each one powered by a Maybach engine to cover as much ground as possible. Heavily armoured, it was impervious to any anti-tank mine, but it was too heavy to cross most bridges. The prototype was captured by the Allies at a Krupp testing ground at the end of the war.{{sfn|Hogg|1996|pages=248−249}}

Throughout 1942 and 1943, the United States Army Ordnance Department experimented with several mine roller designs. Their limitations were excessive weight, slow speeds, and frequent breakdowns. After testing over 15 different designs, the US Army adopted the T1E3 Mine Exploder, which was first fielded by early 1944.{{sfn|Murphy|Cain III|1985|page=37}} It was attached to the M4 Sherman medium tank and was nicknamed Aunt Jemima because of its pancake-like appearance. It had two sets of five disc rollers, {{convert|10|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} in diameter each.{{sfn|Rottman|2013|page=77}}

File:M48_Patton_with_E202_Ensure.jpg, the United States tried mounting Ensure 202 expendable mine rollers on an M48 tank.]]

Since 1945, a number of countries have developed mine rollers including:

• Russia
• Stankomash – TMT.{{cite web |title=Russian Army Engineers receive new equipment |date=31 August 2018 |url=https://www.edrmagazine.eu/russian-army-engineers-receive-new-equipment |access-date=31 August 2018}}
• United Kingdom
• Armtrac Limited – Armtrac Roller: capable of operating at 50 km/h.{{cite web |title=Armtrac Roller |url=https://armtrac.net/products-unmanned-ground-vehicle/ |access-date=6 August 2023}}
• Pearson Engineering – Light Weight Mine Roller (LWMR).{{cite web |title=Light Weight Mine Roller (LWMR) |url=https://www.army-technology.com/products/lightweight-mine-roller/ |access-date=6 August 2023}}
• United States
• Ensure 202: Vietnam-War-era mine roller for M48 Patton tank.
• Axion Corporation: fits to M1 Abrams tank.{{cite web |title=M1A1 Abrams Mine rollers W56HZV-09-C-0571 |url=http://axion-corp.com/project-details/m1a1-abrams-mine-rollers/ |access-date=6 August 2023}}

• Mine plow
• Military engineering vehicle

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last1=Bishop |first1=Chris |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II |date=2014 |publisher=MetroBooks |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-1-4351-5664-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000unse_d5a9/ |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hogg |first1=Ian V. |author1-link=Ian V. Hogg |title=Tank Killing: Anti-tank warfare by men and machines |date=1996 |publisher=Sarpedon |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-1-885119-40-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/tankkillingantit0000hogg/ |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Murphy |first1=Maj. Stanley J |last2=Cain III |first2=Maj. Marion |editor1-last=Fleming |editor1-first=Marilyn |title=The Evolution of Doctrine: Development of Engineer Tactical Doctrine and Equipment, 1939−1944 |journal=The Engineer |date=1985 |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=32-40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8F6T_iS2xFYC&pg=PA37 |access-date=23 April 2025 |publisher=U.S. Army Engineer Center and Fort Belvoir |location=Fort Belvoir, VA |language=en |issn=0046-1989}}
• {{cite book |last1=Rottman |first1=Gordon L. |title=SNAFU Situation Normal All F***ed Up: Sailor, Airman, and Soldier Slang of World War II |date=2013 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4728-0642-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ErSdCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 |language=en}}

{{refend}}

• [https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol5/iss3/9/ Mine Field Breaching in Desert Storm − The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20040404131512/http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Desert_song/Michael.htm Photo of an APC with mine roller]

Category:Armoured fighting vehicle equipment

Category:Mine warfare countermeasures